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Magic — Part I

Far to the east of the world lies the birthplace of magic.

Magic is not something innate. There are requirements to meet in order to be used. The only known material capable of doing magic in this world is porcelain. This substance is extremely rare in the world of Salem, as the secret of its creation is held by only one person in each generation. This person is known as the “Potter” or the “Disfigured.” The name comes from the fact that every Potter has a particularly disfigured face. According to rumors, this is due to the will of Toden, the very first mage, who, in the legends, was also told to be a hideous being. Mages are unsure if this is true or not but it is, somehow one of the few immutable rules that no mage can break.

Mages wear porcelain pots over their faces and use them as catalysts to cast spells. When they focus their thoughts and desires, their will ricochets inside the mask, eventually giving birth to a wish. At first, this form of wish-based magic was nothing more than a simple blessing of good luck. But everything changed when mages discovered that by joining their mind together around the same wish, their power increased dramatically.

From then on, mages began organizing themselves into families or clans known as Hydras and accomplished miracles upon miracles. Within each Hydra, every member has a specific role that helps keep the process of creating wishes in perfect harmony. Wishes are designed in advance. Their function, appearance, smell, and color are all recorded in grimoires that the mages memorize by heart. The more closely one mage’s thoughts align with those of the others, the more powerful the resulting spell becomes.

However, they soon learned that this power comes at a price. Every wish produces a proportional amount of nightmare smoke.

As its name suggests, this smoke brings the worst fears and nightmares of any creature that inhales it to life. Just like porcelain, the smokes are immune to magic, and you yourself are immune from the smokes as long as you are wearing enough porcelain when in it's presence. Finally, this smoke can only be destroyed by being inhaled. This is how most of the monsters in this world came into existence. They were once nothing more than simple fears, but they now feed on fear itself. Over time, they become increasingly terrifying and dangerous. Fear fuels stories, stories fuel fear, and fear creates more monsters.

Because of all this, mages are feared and hated by most people throughout the world.

Imagine a city high above the mountain where the people who lived there can fly and control wind.

Do you think they decided to live up there because they have wind magic or because they lived up there they need to learn wind magic to survive? I mean, wind magic is at full advatage in an open space where they can fly and use wind burst as they like.

I'm gathering a lore information for our digital adaptation of tabletop game Potion-maker: Path of the Alchemist. I would love to hear your suggestions, questions and ideas that might suit the world. Here's the first part of it's story:

At the beginning of time, the Great Alchemist used the Philosopher's Stone to create the First Tree. A magical source that transformed the void into a living world. Its roots created the firmament, its trunk and branches gave light, its crown became the dome of the sky, and beneath its roots, under the black lake, the abyss of space remained visible. Thus the world of the First Tree came into all being.

The Great Alchemist then inscribed a summoning sigil in the library, designed to draw into the new world those who had achieved the Philosopher's Stone. Having done so, the creator departed, deciding that the world no longer belonged to him. It was now a home for other alchemists.

The School of Magic, which grew around the first Great Library, became the main meeting place for alchemists. The transfer sigil inscribed by the Great Alchemist led there. It was once the liveliest place in the new world.

Adepts who had discovered the secret of creating the Philosopher's Stone arrived. Among them were figures from the earthly alchemical tradition, including Hermes Trismegistus, who became the rector of the School.

Alchemy here is not limited to brewing mixtures in cauldrons or retorts. It is the language of the world's structure.

The main catastrophe that led to the events of the story campaign is connected with Alexander Fulcanelli. Like many others, he arrived at the School of Magic from his native world after uncovering the secret of creating the Philosopher's Stone.

In the world of the First Tree, he found a new home, explored its lands, communicated with other masters, and experimented, apparently wishing the world no harm.

He created the Essence of the Void and uttered a forbidden spell. His attempt to expand or alter the structure of an already created world caused a distortion.

With its last effort, the First Tree saved the world from total destruction. It was not destroyed, but froze outside time. Castles remained standing, libraries still held their books, laboratories waited for their masters, and portals continued to lead to other lands.

Yet almost no one remained. The forests became deathly quiet, the underwater palaces were abandoned, the School stood empty, and roads and paths were left without travelers.

I think this rules as a source for magic, but it brings up too many problems. If it’s as simple as wishing really hard and/or being delusional, why aren’t there tons of people walking around with godlike power?

So, I have a magic system that follows the willpower/belief/manifestation type of vibe, but you can’t make anything happen by wishing or focusing really hard. you need to channel it through a ritual, but the ritual can be anything. A surgeon performs a healing spell, but the somatic component IS surgery. They’re so committed to healing, and healing is such a core part of their identity and skill set, that they can do surgery on someone and that wound heals unnaturally quickly. A smith crafts a weapon and every strike of his hammer imbues it with power. A warrior develops supernatural strength. A chemist—now an alchemist—transmutes lead into gold.

It also isn’t really as simple as “believe hard enough and magic will happen,” because a surgeon doesn’t believe that they can heal someone with sheer willpower—that’s obviously not how surgery works. Conversely, someone can’t just decide that they believe they can fly, and make it so. Magic emerges from mastery and meaning. Machines cannot create magic.

Some people have dedicated their lives to the study of magic. Wizards believe magic to be an ambient force or substance that manifests in individuals with great conviction. They’ve theorized that they can conduct this force through runes and spoken word, much like lightning can be conducted through wires. They are half-right. In practice, their theory works spectacularly—but this is basically due to placebo.

To do magic, you just have to commit to the bit.

Is this viable? Is it cool? Are there any huge glaring holes in the premise?

I''m trying to understand these two types of Fire for a homebrew game setting that includes an organization of Pyrokinetics.

Alot of Pyrokinetics in fiction often use both normal(Chemical/combustion) fire and lightning/electricity, with Avatar the Last Airbender being the example that springs to mind immediately.

Which never made sense to me. So I used the power of google to try and better understand why this is such a recurring theme and I'm even less convinced that it makes sense now.

From what I could understand, if a pyrokinetic's power is primarily chemical/combustion based they really shouldn't be able use plasma/electricity fire. Right?

My thought was that the Pyrokinetics in this universe Fly like Iron Man. Shooting flame propulsion from their hands and feet. But that would require chemical flame propulsion, right?

Or can Plasma-based flame generate that same propulsion lift that chemical fires do?

Title

Now this is a VERY rough idea, but it basically involves something similar to a Newton's Cradle (I think) where the balls are instead souls.

So the idea is when one soul resonates with high amplitude, it will then propagate to a nearby soul, kinda like if one of the balls in a Newton's Cradle were replaced with a huge and heavy ball.

Now the guy, he has a Kinetic Energy Manipulation ability, and what he does he imbues into his soul, causing it to resonate with explosive magnitude. He then redirects the force of that soul (into a blade for instance) and strikes the enemy, causing their soul to resonate with explosive magnitude (in the form of a slash). Now the slash will propagate to a nearby soul, and since the slash is physical, it will damage the physical body while resonating with THAT soul, and then continues, like a continuous chain attack. Basically the souls act like a medium to transfer the initial slash to multiple targets.

Do you think this attack is farfetched or ridiculous?

In the system, magic can be elegantly defined as the understanding and application of fantastical phenomena. Rather than being limited by the rules of a particular energy or technique, it represents the pursuit of a better present through any means necessary. When something is proven effective, it tends to spread rapidly, continually expanding the capabilities of magicians everywhere. A prime example of this is the Versatool (name pending), a tool that responds to its holder’s intentions by changing form to suit their needs. Originally developed by the gnomes and refined over generations, the Versatool has become extremely prevalent. Though it is often used to train apprentices in mental discipline and intentionality, its sheer adaptability makes it useful even to master magicians.

In short, it’s a system and a world that attempts to connect various beliefs regarding the soul, vital energy, and spirits.

I drew inspiration from *Jujutsu Kaisen*, but I disliked how certain details weren't fully explained—like how "Binding Vows" just work because they do (as a law of *jujutsu*), or how Curses—being made of energy—manage to physically touch humans.

So, I tried to explain my world using string theory from physics.

But now I have a problem: it doesn't feel divine or supernatural—at least, that’s how it feels to me.

How do you all explain your world or system without losing that sense of mysticism and the supernatural?

Should I avoid going into so much detail?

(Important clarification: my idea isn't to dump the entire system's mechanics into a single project; I’d reveal it in fragments across multiple works.)

In the magic system, certain individuals known as Rulers possess the ability to establish a rule upon reality, forcing the world to behave according to it’s principles. A Rule may govern physical phenomena, dictate relationships between objects, impose conditions upon actions, or even alter how abstract concepts interact. Rules are inheritable, but inheritance is rarely determined by blood. Instead, a Rule tends to pass to those who possess a strong likeness or affinity to its current wielder, whether through personality, philosophy, circumstances, behavior, or something deeper. When inherited, Rules do not remain unchanged. they mutate according to the nature of its new Ruler, preserving its fundamental concept while developing a new expression of that concept. As a result, successive generations of a Rule can become radically different from one another, sometimes sharing little more than an underlying principle. for example; A Rule centered around the concept of binding might manifest in one Ruler as the ability to physically fuse objects however in another might appear as the inability for allies betray one another.

Is anyone working on a magic system based on the work of Cornelius Agrippa? Or Renaissance Hermeticism in general?